


Stay With Me

by Reyn



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-18 12:44:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16995228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reyn/pseuds/Reyn
Summary: The zombie apocalypse is raining down on the East Coast, but there’s always hope with your back against your lover.





	Stay With Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cadkitten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cadkitten/gifts).



From the outskirts, Star City didn’t look too promising.

Half the city’s lights were out, damage which extended to many of the automatic streetlights, leaving the once bright city looking like it was flickering pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. It was impossible to take in the state of the buildings themselves through the torrential rain, but considering it was raining at all was enough to keep all survivors well away from such a populated area.

“What do you think?” Dick asked, lowering his binoculars. He looked over to see Damian standing with his hood down and hair plastered to his forehead. Face falling into a frown, he reached over and yanked Damian’s hood back up to cover his head. “Never mind, I already know what you think.”

“The sooner we get the samples to Star Labs—”

“We are _not_ fighting hordes of zombies when they’re in their initial stages of regeneration.”

“I used to do it all the time!”

“Well _I_ didn’t!” Dick snapped.

The tension strained between the two of them for too long of a moment and Dick wondered if this would be when their frayed emotions finally snapped. Instead, the moment passed and Damian’s shoulders slumped as he stubbornly turned away.

Dick expected to be relieved, but all he felt was lingering frustration. They needed to get out of this rain.

“We leave within the hour once the rain stops,” Damian commanded once they were both safely in the back of the bat-armored Hummer.

“Two hours.” Dick made sure his tone brokered no disagreement.

If he had full control of the situation, he would have bargained for 24 hours. But as it was, Damian was more susceptible to the Lazarus rainstorms. No, not more susceptible. More eager to embrace them.

For as much as he looked like Bruce, there was something in his gaze that was eerily similar to Ra’s when he watched the rain.

Right now, though, Damian only looked incensed. His green eyes flashed as he glared at Dick, but his mouth stayed firmly shut as he pulled out a small towel to dry his face and hair.

Bruce had assigned them to this mission not only for how seamlessly they could work together, but because Dick was the only one Damian respected enough to actually follow his orders without too much arguing. Dick wasn’t sure how much longer that would remain the case.

Damian had already stopped waiting for Dick’s command on most matters. God, it was only a matter of days before Damian stormed off on his own, loyalty be damned in the face of superior knowledge and twisted emotions.

The longer this apocalypse went on, the more their relationship regressed to the point of no return.

And Dick had no idea how to stop it. Had no time to figure out what needed to be done for them when they were tasked with saving the world.

The League was still investigating just who was behind stealing the secrets of the Lazarus Pit and implementing it into the earth’s atmosphere.

The effects had been minor at first. Heightened aggression. Lowered inhibitions. But as time went on, the full extent of the consequences became known. Madness. Mass murders. Regeneration. An endless cycle of mindless monsters that attacked and killed anything that moved, restarting every time it rained.

Bruce had managed to obtain samples of the Lazarus compound, both from the Pit and from the atmosphere. It was now up to Dick and Damian to get it to what remained of Star Labs where it could be used to create a solution to hopefully reverse everything.

And then maybe the two of them could go back to what had been the tentative start to an even deeper bond than what they had before.

Laying here now in the back of the car, listening to the rain patter on the roof, Dick wasn’t so sure they would be able to make it back. So much resentment had accumulated between them since they accepted this mission that Dick could feel himself heading down the same path he had with Barbara.

One where the history was too much to hide behind rose-colored glasses.

That was the absolute last thing Dick wanted when it came to Damian, but looking over at the younger man, he had no idea how to prevent it.

Damian, huddled with his back turned towards him as he feigned sleep seemed miles away.

Forcing himself to look on the bright side, Dick stubbornly told himself that things would get better once their mission was carried out. They had to. If only because he wasn’t ready to let go of Damian just yet.

+

The Hummer had just enough gas to get them into the heart of downtown Star City. The lab was only another three miles away, a distance made more daunting by the sheer number of zombies their arrival had attracted.

Damian, at least, seemed to be thriving in the fight.

Past experience* had him inherently knowing exactly how fast their enemies could move and what their reaction time was. Something Dick was still working through the kinks on.

Granted, he also had the disadvantage of refusing to use a sword against the zombies, since he believed they could all be saved once they reversed the Lazarus rainstorms.

In Damian’s defense, he believed the same.

But then, he also believed people could still function just fine with a few missing limbs.

It was one of the many arguments Dick had lost.

Now was hardly the time to dwell on such matters as he focused on the six – no, seven –

“Eight o’clock!”

—crap, nine, zombies that were currently gaining up against him.

He managed to fell three of them and poked the eye out of a fourth who seemed determined to bite off a chunk of his shoulder.

“Is it just me, or are the zombies getting more zombie-like as time passes by?” Dick asked as he put his escrima sticks to work, crippling another three bodies.

Damian’s response came in the form of two throwing knives imbedded to the hilt in skulls of the last two zombies.

“Robin!” The ‘ _we don’t kill!_ ’ remained coiled and ready to launch on Dick’s tongue as Damian came forward.

“If that’s the case, the only way to stop them is a shot to the head.” His cold gaze dropped down to the unmoving bodies. “Looks like it worked.”

The reprimand finally sprang forward, harsh and angry.

“Relax.” Damian bent over to retrieve the knives, pulling them free one after another with a wet squelching noise Dick would have happily lived several lifetimes never hearing again. “They’ll be fine after it rains.”

“No, then they’ll be senseless rage-filled psychopaths.”

Damian scoffed, wiping his weapons clean on the tattered remains of the corpses’ clothes. “Like they weren’t such a thing already. The sooner you get it through your head that Batman’s rules don’t apply in a post-apocalyptic world, the sooner we can save what’s left of it.”

Dick wanted to argue. In fact, he almost did argue. But a strong, blunt force hitting his midsection had him staggering sideways.

His first instinct was to get Damian to safety. That was immediately overrun by the sharp, blinding pain that rendered his entire right side paralyzed. Forcing himself to look down, he stared blankly at the ax that was embedded into his torso.

As it was wrenched out, the man wielding it let out a crazed laugh and raised it above his head in preparation for another blow.

_Why does a zombie have an ax? That’s not how it works in the movies…_

A large blur, screaming in Damian’s voice went flying past and crashed into the assailant.

Dick tried to speak. Tried to tell Damian to escape this new wave of zombies. To remember the mission and haul his ass to Star Labs. But his vocal chords had seized and it was all he could do to even breathe properly through the short gasps his lungs were struggling with.

There was another jarring impact as his body crumpled to the ground.

Dick managed to turn his head just enough to make out the blurred form of Damian’s colorful outfit stretch, shrink, and lash out as he took down this new wave of foes. He was beautiful, and Dick regretted withholding such a compliment, knowing Damian would never appreciate the sentiment.

The world was fading around the edges and Dick realized this was it. The end of the line. The wound was too large; bleeding out too fast. He was going to die here and be reborn with all the other mangled corpses. Was it too cruel to wonder if Damian would take the time to find him and kill him for good once his mission was over? If anything, it was an impractical thought. Because now Damian had the freedom to complete the mission the way he deigned ideal.

+

He came to wet, cold, and angry.

_God_ , he was so—the emotion was too large to—

A fist against the ground wasn’t enough. So he rolled over and pounded it a few more times until subtle movement in his peripheral vision caught his attention.

A target.

Without thought, he leapt up and went after it. It needed to be destroyed. Shredded. Maimed. And if it was alive, it needed to _bleed_.

“—ayson! Grayson, stop! Please!”

The red haze was slow to subside, but once it did, recognition set in.

“Damian? What…?” Continuing to press down against the stalemate they were locked in, Dick looked around, taking in their surroundings.

They were indoors. Somewhere dark. The windows were covered with drapes. An apartment? There was furniture. A large stain marking a path into another room. Buckets.

“What happened?”

“You died.”

Dick’s gaze snapped back to Damian who met his incredulous stare head on.

“I brought you back.”

But they were inside. No rain. “How?”

Damian’s eyes narrowed unapologetically. “I used my sample of the undiluted Lazarus Pit. Poured it directly into the wound.”

“You… _what?_ ” The rage threatened to consume Dick again.

“I then went around collecting what remaining rain puddles I could locate, pouring them into the bathtub with—”

Dick drew back only to lash out, his blow sending Damian crashing into the far wall.

“You put the mission at risk!” He rushed forward, pinning Damian in place before he could recover. “ _You_ of all people know the importance of ignoring casualties in favor of the greater good!”

Damian’s lips pulled back in a snarl. “I would have _sabotaged_ the mission if that’s what it took to save you!”

Dick’s grip went boneless.

“You are the _one_ thing I won’t sacrifice for _anything_.” Damian broke free from the hold. “Not even if it means saving the world.”

Thoughts flew back to Dick’s insecurities in the prior days. Of their strained relationship. Of Damian’s constant insubordination. Of his fears being left behind.

Emotion moving his body once more, Dick reached out and wrapped both hands around the back of Damian’s head. The distance between them closed and disappeared as Dick’s lips crashed into Damian’s, conveying what words couldn’t possibly encompass.

The kiss was desperate, passionate, and _perfect_.

Dick melted into it. Or—he at least tried to melt into it. It was a bit hard to do when Damian was tilting his head down, freeing his mouth to utter, “You’re an idiot, Grayson.”

Dick agreed. But he was fine with that so long as Damian continued to have his back.

THE END.

**Author's Note:**

> *The hints at Damian's past experience are pulled from the Lil' Gotham Christmas issue (if I remember correctly), when he talks about how, for the holidays, Ra's would have dead bodies thrown into the Pit, which led to the family fighting off hordes of zombies for fun.


End file.
